For Warriors, Green's work paying off

Updated 11:26 pm, Monday, December 2, 2013

Second-year forward Draymond Green spent his offseason reshaping both his body and his jump shot, and positive results have followed this season.

Second-year forward Draymond Green spent his offseason reshaping both his body and his jump shot, and positive results have followed this season.

Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press

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Draymond Green's role with the Warriors has grown as his body has shrunk. He has increased his scoring, rebounding, assist, steal and blocked-shot averages this season, and weighs 20 pounds less than he did as a rookie. less

Draymond Green's role with the Warriors has grown as his body has shrunk. He has increased his scoring, rebounding, assist, steal and blocked-shot averages this season, and weighs 20 pounds less than he did as ... more

Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

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Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green smiles after scoring against the Sacramento Kings during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green smiles after scoring against the Sacramento Kings during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press

For Warriors, Green's work paying off

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Plenty has been written about the remarkable offseason steps Draymond Green took to transform his body and his shooting accuracy.

But the Warriors' forward said a simple decision to start playing more like himself this year was much more important than his half-hour sessions of riding an exercise bike in the sauna or his countless hours of taking jump shots.

"I think that last year, a lot of times, I wasn't me," Green said Monday, fresh off making a couple of crunch-time plays in the Warriors' 115-113 victory over Sacramento a day earlier. "I did the hustle things, but, especially offensively, I wasn't me. I didn't look to make plays, I sometimes didn't shoot the ball when I was open or I didn't have confidence in my shot.

"My main thing coming into this year was to be me and do what got me here. The Warriors didn't draft me to do what didn't get me here. They drafted me to do what I did to get here."

Green is doing just that.

His scoring, rebounding, assist, steal and blocked-shot averages are up this season. He has more than doubled his defensive averages, and he's close to doubling his points and play-making in just five more minutes per game than he played as a rookie.

If his frame, which went from a somewhat doughy 250 pounds to a hardened 230, isn't enough to make the point, Green's three-point shooting improvement is undeniable. He made 14 threes on 67 attempts all of last season, and he already has 14 threes on 36 tries this season.

Opponents have taken note. On the team's just-completed trip through New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma City and Sacramento, a defender trying to stop a Warriors' 2-on-1 break twice cheated toward Green - instead of sharp-shooting Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson.

"When you're on a team like this, with such great three-point shooters, you don't want to be a liability," Green said. "It's not like you're going to shoot to the extent that they do, but you just don't want to be a liability on the floor. It helps open up so many things on the court."

Green challenged Curry to a three-point contest during last season's playoffs and then confidently knocked down nine in 12 postseason games. Green is still looking for a rematch, and he's always looking for more from himself.

He left Michigan State as the school's all-time leading rebounder and finished second in steals and blocked shots. He was second in triple-doubles to Magic Johnson and invariably will find some comparisons to the oversized, do-everything point guard who came before him.

"Please," Warriors head coach Mark Jackson joked. "He already thinks (too much about) the Michigan State thing with Magic Johnson and all of that."

Jackson tried to warn Green not to play into the media's line of questioning as they traded positions on Monday's dais, but Green couldn't help himself. If he's doing anything, he thinks he's going to win.

"Oh, absolutely," he said. "My entire life, I've been put in a role where I've sometimes had to initiate offense. It's nothing foreign to me."

When Green was asked to initiate the offense in Sacramento, he was mostly just dumping an entry pass to David Lee on the block or to Curry on the elbow. Green went on to talk about the intricacies of ball placement and timing to make the ensuing shot easier for his teammates.

Green comprehends both the schematic and spiritual sides of the game. He goaded Lee about not dunking an alley-oop pass he dished earlier in the game Sunday, but deep down, he was happy that Lee found a way to lay it in.

"That would have been a top-10 play, but he had missed his first five shots," Green said. "At that point, you just want to see one go in, and it was a play that helped spark our run. ...

"I've never worried about the things that people notice."

He's too busy worrying about things that win games.

Tuesday's game

Who: Raptors (6-10) vs. Warriors (10-8)

Where: Oracle Arena

When: 7:30 p.m.

TV/Radio: CSNBA/680

Of note: Starting small forward Andre Iguodala (hamstring strain) and backup point guard Toney Douglas (stress reaction in his leg) will miss Tuesday's game and their status for the team's three-game, Friday-Monday road trip will be decided soon, according to head coach Mark Jackson. ... The Warriors have won 10 of their past 12 meetings with Toronto and have beaten the Raptors eight straight times in Oakland. ... Stephen Curry has career-best averages of 27.3 points and 8.5 assists in six games against Toronto. ... Raptors shooting guard DeMar DeRozan has scored at least 17 points in a career-high 10 consecutive games and is averaging 24.3 points per game during the stretch. ... Power forward Tyler Hansbrough started Sunday in place of Amir Johnson, who put up 23 points on 10-for-10 shooting and 15 rebounds against the Warriors in March. ... Toronto is third in the league in offensive rebounds (13.1 per game), having grabbed double-digit offensive boards in all but three games.

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